


and we'll never be royals

by carthe_angel



Category: Football RPF
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Princess Diaries Fusion, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-11
Updated: 2015-09-11
Packaged: 2018-04-20 05:49:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,345
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4775972
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/carthe_angel/pseuds/carthe_angel
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>David’s life had never went according to plan, but this is probably taking it too far.  Who would’ve thought that he’d be the heir apparent to the Genovian throne?</p>
            </blockquote>





	and we'll never be royals

**Author's Note:**

> My first minibang :) It was a great experience, so thanks to the mods for organizing! Also a biiig thank you to penny jordan for beta-ing and making these beautiful manips :)

The Day That Everything Changed, as David calls it later, starts out as normal.

He wakes up at fuck o’clock to get ready for practice. Pepe greets him like they haven’t seen each other in months instead of hours, and Fabregas and Pique annoy the shit out of him within the first half hour of practice with their yammering. It is way too much for seven in the morning. Eventually, Silva has to give him a look and nudge him gently to calm him down before his temper descends from annoyed to you’re fucking dead. It’s a fine line that only Silva (and Pepe, but he crosses it intentionally, the asshole) can read. Of course, this makes Cesc giggle and coo at them for being “nauseatingly adorable”.

“Ignore him,” Silva says, but he’s blushing too. “You know he’s purposely riling you up.” He yawns into the collar of his jacket, and David has to fight the urge to kiss him. Suddenly, he’s feeling less annoyed and a lot more fond.

Geri, who obviously has no self control, rams into the both of them and kisses their cheeks loudly, which leads to a scuffle when David tackles the defender for violating his bubble, and accidentally knocks Silva down as well.

Coach Guardiola breaks them up and gets the three of them to run extra laps as punishment. Silva grumbles the whole way through and glares at Geri enough that he promises to make it up to him with lunch the next day. Silva grins mischievously at Geri the moment the promise is made, and when the defender realizes he’s been tricked, he tackles Silva again with words of vengeance.

All in all, it is a pretty uneventful practice.

It only really starts getting strange when he’s home. He’s knocking shoulders with Silva playfully, grinning at each other like idiots, when he walks up his driveway and pauses. Both his parents’ cars are in the driveway.

“Aren’t your parents supposed to be at work?” Silva asks him.

“Yeah. I don’t know why they’re home.” David feels his heart sink. Today is one of the few days that Silva didn’t have to volunteer after school, and his parents are home early. “Fuuuuuck.”

Silva laughs at the devastated look on his face. “C’mon David. It’s just your parents. They don’t have a problem with us.”

“Yeah,” he mumbles. “That is the problem.”

It’s true that his parents have no qualms about him and Silva being together, and had loved the other boy the moment he was introduced to them as their son’s boyfriend. David is convinced it was the blushing and the shyness that totally won over his mom’s heart. Like mother, like son, he supposes. Don’t get him wrong, he’s really glad that his parents love his boyfriend, but sometimes he wishes they would tone it down a little. Every time his parents and Silva are in a room together, they somehow spend an hour talking about school, and work, and Silva’s volunteer job at the hospital nearby, when all David wants to do is sprawl on the couch next to Silva and play some FIFA.

To be honest, he was really looking forward to spending a couple hours just fooling around with Silva today.

Well, there’s nothing he can do about it now. He walks past the driveway to his front door and opens it, finding it unlocked as usual. Silva tags along a little bit behind him along their narrow walkway. “Mom? Dad?”

Both his parents pop their heads out of the kitchen. “Oh hi honey! And David! What a surprise.” His mom smiles, but even at a distance, David can tell there’s something wrong. “We weren’t expecting you to come today. I thought you had volunteering today?”

“It’s my day off,” Silva explains. “Is everything okay?”

“Everything’s fine. I’m sorry, we actually just have to talk to David right now,” his mom says, biting her lips. David knows his mom enough to know that she only does that when she’s nervous. Shit, that’s a bad sign. It makes his stomach turn nervously, seeing that tick of hers and thinking of what she possibly has to say.

“Oh! No problem, I should go home anyway, I have a lot of assignments to do.” Silva turns to leave, but David grabs his arm.

“You can wait upstairs. I don’t think it’ll take long,” David mutters to him and gives him a pleading look. If it’s as bad as it looks, he’d really prefer if his boyfriend didn’t leave. Fooling around sounds like the perfect distraction after bad news.

“This looks really serious, David. I’ll talk to you later, okay?” Silva gives him a quick kiss, which surprisingly helps him feel a little bit more at ease, but does nothing in terms of making him feel less like jumping his boyfriend. Silva leaves quietly and David spends a moment looking longingly at the door before bucking up and joining his parents in the kitchen.

He slumps onto one of the dining table chairs and looks at his parents’ solemn faces. “So. Who fucking died?”

\------------------ 

Silva’s checking his phone for the hundredth time during dinner when his sister gets annoyed with him and snatches it away. “Hey! Give that back!”

“What’s so important that you can’t wait fifteen minutes until dinner’s done?” Natalia snaps. “You’ve been ignoring me for the past ten minutes!”

“Sorry,” Silva grumbles. “David’s family was acting weird earlier and I’m a little worried, that’s all.”

“Maybe they’re getting tired of your face,” Nando says. “It is a chore looking at it all the time. He’ll probably break up with you soon.”

“Nando!” His mother admonishes while his father gives Nando a slap on the head. She turns a motherly look to Silva. “Don’t worry about it honey, I’m sure it has nothing to do with you.”

Silva glares at his brother. “It doesn’t, you idiot. It’s something family related, I think. I don’t know, they looked really worried, so I’m just distracted.”

Natalia watches him push around his food on his plate before sighing and giving his phone back. “As I was saying, I’ve got an inter - ” she begins again.

BZZT. The doorbell interrupts her. She throws a murderous look at the door.

“Fucking seriously, can I never finish my - ”

BZZT. BZZT. BZZT. BZZT.

“I’ll get it,” Silva volunteers and gets up before his sister can kill the visitor. He opens the door to find a pale faced David looking at him. “David? What’s wrong?”

His boyfriend doesn’t even react to the question and just shoves his way in. Silva closes the door quietly and helps David sit on the stairs. David opens and closes his mouth a couple times before whispering, “I, uh, I just, can I stay here for a while?”

Silva nods. “Wait in my room, I’ll be there in a second.” David nods and stumbles his way up the stairs. Silva worries for a moment that he’ll slip down the stairs he’s so careless right now, and so he waits until David’s safely in his room before hurrying back to the kitchen.

“Hey, it’s David, there’s something wrong, can I - ” he makes vague gestures to convey comfort.

“Go, go,” his father says, waving his hand dismissively. “You can bring your dinner up with you. And another portion for David if he wants it.”

“You weren’t paying attention anyway,” Natalia mutters.

“I’m sorry,” Silva says as he picks up his plate and piles more paella on another one. “I promise you can tell me all about it after.”

He hurries his way back to his room and nudges the door open to slip in. David’s sprawled on his bed, face down, his feet hanging off the end of the bed by his calves. Silva nudges him on the foot with his knees to get his attention.

“Hey, I’ve got some dinner for you if you want some.”

“I don’t know if I can eat right now. I might throw up.” David says, voice muffled by Silva’s pillow.

Silva settles both plates down on his desk, carefully on top of his chemistry lab, and sits on his bed. He runs his hand through David’s hair, feeling the tension in his boyfriend’s body slowly ease out. He doesn’t say anything, and he doesn’t have to. David always vents out when he feels ready to.

“You know, if this were to happen to anyone else, it’d be hilarious,” David says after a couple minutes. “Like, fucking rolling on the floor, tears in your eyes kind of funny. But it’s kind of shit otherwise.”

“I’m assuming nobody died then. Not even your sense of humour is that twisted.”

David turns his head towards him slowly as to not jar Silva’s hands that are still running through his hair, and glares at him. “Fuck you.”

Silva just smiles at him and waits for David to gather his thoughts.

“It’s fucking ridiculous, I’m half convinced that I’m dreaming. But I can’t be because I must’ve pinched myself a thousand times since I, well, found out and I still haven’t woken up yet. Fuck! I swear I must be going insane or something.”

“I still have no idea what you’re talking about.”

David sits up, dislodging Silva’s fingers from his hair. He shifts and maneuvers them until they’re lying next to each other, squished together on Silva’s twin sized bed, with Silva’s head on David’s shoulder. David’s still silent, which is worrying in itself. When things get bad, David likes to rant and grumble about the problem nonstop. When things get really bad, David gets quiet.

“You’re starting to freak me out a little,” Silva says into David’s t-shirt, and gives him a quick kiss on the neck, hoping to comfort his boyfriend even when he has no idea what’s going on.

“You remember the news from last week? Prince Filip died in a car accident and Genovia was in an uproar about succession since the next in line is kind of a fuck up or something.”

“Yeah, sure.” Silva’s not really sure where he’s going with this, but he does remember what David’s talking about. It made headlines last week, since Spain shares a border with Genovia, and the media was talking about the succession problem for days, and there were debates on whether the death would affect country relations. “What does that have to do with anything?”

“Well,” David says slowly. “It turns out that, technically, the fuck up isn’t the next in line. I am.”

Silva sits up immediately. “You’re what?”

David doesn’t meet his eye. “Yeah. Surprise. I’m the fucking crown prince of Genovia.”

\------------------ 

David’s caught off guard that the first thing out of Silva’s mouth is laughter. Although, to be fair, his own reaction was basically the exact same thing.

Silva stops a moment later and just stares at him. “Wait. You’re not laughing.”

David sighs. “I wish I was kidding, you have no idea.”

His boyfriend just gapes at him for a couple seconds. “Bu-but how?”

“Turns out my mom dated Prince Filip for a while before she met my dad. And, well, she didn’t know he was royalty, and his family didn’t know about her, it was just a very secret thing. The way she tells it, shit went down when the king found out, and made them break up,” David takes a deep breath. “Well, it was too late cause my mom was already pregnant with me.”

“Holy shit.”

“Uh huh.” David groans and buries his face into the pillow. “I don’t know what to do.”

“No, seriously, David, holy shit.”

“I got that, thanks babe.” David’s neck is starting to hurt from looking up at Silva so he pulls the other boy down beside him again. “I have to meet with the king tomorrow for lunch. I’m thinking of skipping out.”

Silva makes to sit up again, but David’s arm stops him. Silva turns to him, a horrified look on his face. “You can’t stand the king up!”

“He’s not my king.”

“Does that matter? He’s a king. And your grandfather, apparently.”

“What the fuck is he going to do? March his army through the streets?” He pauses for a second. “Wait, does Genovia even have an army?”

“They’re their own country. Of course they have an army,” Silva says exasperatedly. “That’s not the point. You’re not going to skip out on lunch with the king, David.”

“I’m not going,” David insists. Silva’s going to be stubborn about this, he can tell. But unfortunately for Silva, David can out-stubborn anyone. “I’m not going to meet him because I’m not going to be the fucking crown prince of anything. If I just avoid him, he’ll leave eventually and everything will go back to the way it was.”

“Great plan,” Silva says sarcastically.

“It is a great plan.”

“Look, David, as much as I know you want to skip out, you really can’t do that with the king. Maybe he’s just here to give you a choice if you’d want to become a prince! I mean, it’s not a bad future to have.” Silva takes David’s hands and forces him to look up at him. “You should go to lunch tomorrow and just tell him you’re not interested.”

David thinks about it seriously for a second. “I like my plan.”

Silva smiles at him fondly. “Of course you do. But mine’s better.”

David sighs. “I’ll think about it.” He looks at Silva and can’t help but close the gap between them with a fierce kiss. When they separate, he’s pleased to see Silva’s eyes track his lips. “I think I have the best plan for what to do right now though,” he says with a wicked smile.

Silva laughs. “My family’s downstairs.” At David’s pout, he pulls him closer again. “We can make out though,” he allows.

“I’ll take what I can get.”

 

\---------------------

Even though telling Silva and talking with him about what to do had somewhat cleared his head, David still isn’t sure he wants to go to lunch with the king. Unfortunately, his mom takes the control away from him the next day, by insisting he doesn’t go to school (who knew finding out you’re royalty would give you a free pass to skip school?), and then driving him to meet his grandfather.

The ride there is quiet, his mom piping up once in a while to fill the silence with questions about school and Silva that David answers as shortly as possible. Part of the way through the ride, she reaches over with one hand and places it on top of David’s own sweaty ones.

She laughs. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you so nervous.”

“You should concentrate on driving. You’re setting a bad example,” David shoots back. He slips his hands out from underneath hers and wipes them on his pants. That won’t do much - they’ll be sweaty again in ten seconds, but he keeps doing it to keep himself occupied.

“Now, honey, remember what I told you,” she says to him, pulling the car up to a high class, ritzy hotel.

“Yes, yes,” David says, feeling a foul mood starting to creep up on him at the sight of the opulence of the place. He already feels out of place in his ragged t-shirt and jeans, and he’s not even out of the car yet. “Be polite, be nice.”

“And?”

“No swearing.”

“Good,” she pats him on the hand. “I know you don’t want to do this at all. I’m really glad you are though.”

“It’s not like I had much of a choice. You basically stuffed me into this car,” David says irritably. “And, it’s lunch. It’s not like I’m going to agree to it all.”

His mom smiles. “I know. Either way, I’m just glad you didn’t run away from home and hide away forever.”

David doesn’t bother to tell her that that was his plan in the first place. He figures she already knows. The relief on her face when he stumbled through the door early this morning said everything. He puts it out of his mind. If he’s going to do this, he can’t be distracted. “Are you going to wait?”

“I’m going to get some shopping done around here. When you’re done, give me a text and I’ll come back.”

David pats his pants pocket to make sure his phone is there and then nods. “Okay. But don’t plan on buying much. I’m not going to take long.”

“Love you honey.”

David grunts at her instead, and leaves the car. He hears his mother tear away from the hotel and sighs. Suddenly, without her beside him, he feels even more out of place and alone than he did before. He didn’t think it was possible.

He walks past the valet and bellboys who greet him with a lively, “hello sir”, and into the hotel. The walls are a pristine cream with gold trimmings on the top and bottom, and the floors are gleaming white and black. The whole place screams money, and he’s suddenly filled with the urge to be anywhere but here. He takes out his phone to call for his mom to come back. Screw this, he can avoid the king if he wants to.

The indicator light on his phone is flashing blue and when he turns the screen on, he sees about 9 new messages from Pepe and one new message from Silva. He selects Silva’s: good luck, you can do it. love you.

David shoots back a quick text to Silva: i already hate this. im only doing this for you. Then, as an afterthought, he sends another: love you too.

Almost immediately, another one comes through from Silva: ;)

He smiles and takes a brief look at Pepe’s texts (all of them asking “where are you?” in different and creative ways). He dismisses all the text notifications and continues to walk to the reception. On his way there, a well dressed brown haired man with a strikingly handsome face gets up from his chair and intercepts him. “Mr. Villa?”

David gives him a strange look, and looks him up and down. “Do I know you?”

“I work with your grandfather. I was told to bring you up with me,” the man says quietly.

“Oh,” David says awkwardly. “Oh yeah, sure.”

“This way, please.”

This guy’s way too polite. It’s making David feel even more out of place, and the urge to just run comes back even stronger. But this guy looks more athletic than him. He’d probably catch him before he’s out of the door. So David reluctantly follows him into the elevator and watches in dread as he presses the button for the penthouse.

“It’s an honour to meet you, your highness,” the man says stiffly.

“Oh no,” David blurts. “Don’t say that sort of shit to me. It’s way too fucking weird.” Well, there goes the no swearing promise he made. To be fair, his mom should know better than to expect him to keep that.

The man pauses. “Of course. I apologize, Mr. Villa.”

David wants to tell him not to call him that either, but it’s so awkward already so he just leaves it as it is. Neither of them say a word for the rest of the elevator ride to the top. The man leads him out of the elevator to a door at the end of the corridor, knocks three times in a weird ass pattern, and waits. A moment later, the door opens and another similarly dressed man greets the two of them.

The brunet stays outside the door and the new guy leads David through the hotel room - although David thinks room isn’t really a good word for it: this place is massive. They eventually get to a cozy dining room with a wooden dining table big enough for six chairs. At the head of the table sits King Vicente, an elderly man with a strong and friendly face. David can’t believe that this was the guy who forced his biological father to break it off with his mom. From what he’s read, and from the open look on his face, he doesn’t seem the type. But then again, looks are deceiving.

The man that led him in bows once they’ve entered. “This is Mr. Villa, your majesty.”

“Thank you, Carlos, that will be all,” the king says. “Sit down, David, please.”

As if on automatic, David’s body moves to sit down. The door closes quietly behind him while he shuffles around to get comfortable on the chair. It’s one of the fancy kinds you see on television, but, strangely, a lot more uncomfortable than he expected.

A cough takes David out of his thoughts. He looks up to see King Vicente (grandfather? No, that sounds way too informal) looking at him with a strained smile. “I hope you found your way easily.”

Great. Small talk.

He shrugs. “My mom drove me here using the GPS. It wasn’t too bad.”

“Of course.”

An awkward pause fills the room and David’s way too out of his comfort zone to say anything else. He was the king, shouldn’t he be used to being charming? Or is it not required to have any social skills since people suck up to you all the time?

“I assume your mother has told you about our precarious situation,” King Vicente says to break the silence.

David shrugs again. “Not much, just that the Prince died and he was my dad.” God, that was so weird to say. “Look, I appreciate - ” Not the right word, but the word he wants to use is probably inappropriate. “ - you coming all the way here and telling me, but I’m not really the princely type.”

King Vicente watches him with a look David can’t decipher at all. “I was afraid that you would say that.” He sighs. “Although I suppose I was being too optimistic. Your mother has told me multiple times that you wouldn’t want to.”

David feels a wave of surprise wash over him. “You talk to my mother?”

“Your father - Filip - sent her emails and letters at least a couple times a year to keep in touch with your life. And, well, with what happened last week, we’ve been in constant communication.” The king’s face takes a sad turn, his eyes downcast. It, astonishingly, takes David a moment to realize that he had lost his son barely a week earlier.

“Oh. I never knew that.” He bites his lip, not sure how to proceed with the new information. “I’m sorry for your loss.”

King Vicente’s face looks even more downtrodden now, lips quivering and face scrunching up if only for a moment. “Thank you. I wish, now, that you had gotten to know him. He was… he was a good man, and would have been a good father.”

David doesn’t say that he’s fine with the way things are, even though that’s the first thought that pops up. But he’s not quite able to stop the next thought from flying out of his mouth, “then why did you make them break up?”

King Vicente looks surprised at his outburst. “It - it was just not done, not back then. Nowadays, with William and Kate, things aren’t as… strict. But back then, it was different. Your father tried to persuade me and the Prime Minister, but we were both stubborn about it. And it was the right decision, back then. The public would not have been gracious about a civilian Spanish girl marrying into the family.”

The king sighs again. “If it is any consolation, Filip and your mother were in love, and he was ready to abdicate his position to be with her. But things aren’t as simple as that, and I needed him to take his role, just like I need you to now, even if you don’t want to.”

“What do you mean need me to?” David demands.

“The next in line, as I’m sure you’ve heard, is my nephew. And he’s not in the right place to take that position. He’s always shied away from the public spotlight, and when Filip was crown prince, things weren’t as bad. There was somebody else to keep the attention away from him. Ever since Filip died, he’s been a nervous wreck, and a couple days ago, he had a breakdown.”

Vicente sighs. “He’s very easily agitated and anxious whenever there is media attention on him. He has never taken well to the idea of being a public figure, and there is no way that he can handle the pressure of being the heir.”

Suddenly, David understands that his grandfather isn’t here to give him a choice. His heart sinks as he realizes that whether he wants to or not, his life is about to change completely.

\-------------------------------------

 

“ - hey! Are you even listening to me?”

Silva manages to tear his eyes away from his phone to look at his friend. “Yes, yes, sorry.”

Jesus gives him a weird look. “You’ve been distracted this whole day. You didn’t even react when Mr. Mourinho called on you during Chemistry!”

Silva shrugs. “David’s meeting with his … estranged grandfather for lunch today. They should be done by now, but he hasn’t texted me back yet.”

Jesus sniggers. “Aww, Villa hasn’t texted you in like two hours, poor baby.”

Silva pushes him playfully. “Aww, are you jealous?”

“Pft, of who? You? Or Villa? No thank you.”

Silva shoves him again, and it devolves into a playful shoving match in the middle of the cafeteria where they’ve been eating lunch. A clanking noise makes both of them look up at Cesc who’s placing his tray across from them and slouching down onto the seat. Not two seconds later, Geri bounds over and sits next to Cesc.

“Hey guys!” Geri slams down his tray filled with a couple slices of pizza and brownies.

“What’s with Cesc?” Jesus asks, looking at the somber face of his usually very enthusiastic friend.

“He bet me that he had me beat on the last math test, but I ended up with an B- and he had a C+,” Geri says grinning. “So my meal today is sponsored by Cesc Fabregas.”

Silva, who was sitting right across from Geri, leans over and takes a slice of pizza and a brownie. “I think you mean, my lunch.”

“Hey, wait! What do you mean? Give that back!”

“You promised me lunch, Geri, remember? For making me run laps yesterday.”

“You tricked me!”

“I did no such thing,” Silva says innocently while munching on his pizza slice. He pats Cesc on the head. “Thank you Cesc.”

Cesc ignores him. “How could I let Geri beat me on a math test? Of all people.”

“If it makes you feel any better, I actually studied for this test!”

All that does is make Cesc even more despondent. “So did I,” he groans into his hands.

Silva is about to say something vaguely comforting to get that look off his friend’s face when his phone vibrates beside his hand. In a flash, he’s unlocked his screen to see David’s newest text to him.

so, it turns out i might not have a choice in this. fuck.

Alarm flashes through him. what do you mean no choice

A second later, David replies. just that. i can’t abdicate until i’ve actually become king. so until then, im heir.

Jesus nudges him. “Everything okay with Villa?” His eyes flash from the scuffle that’s happening on the other side of the table to his best friend.

“Just a sec,” Silva says to Jesus and quickly leaves the cafeteria to call his boyfriend. “David?”

“Hey.” Even through the tinny overtone of the phone, Silva can hear the exhaustion in the older boy’s voice.

“What are you going to do?” Silva asks quietly as he finds a secluded corner in one of the schools’ many hallways.

“Well, what can I do? Seems like I have to go through with it.”

“That’s it? You’re not going to fight it?”

“I did, for an hour with the king. I’ll abdicate if it comes to it, but until then, this is going to be my life.” David sighs on the other end. “A media report is going out this weekend telling the people the happy news.”

“I’m sorry David.”

“Yeah, so am I for the country of Genovia. Can you imagine, me as the king? What a fucking joke.”

“Don’t say that. They’ll be preparing you anyway right?”

“Yeah, somebody is coming over for the next couple days to prepare me for the media. So I won’t be going to school for the rest of the week.”

Silva sighs at that. “I miss you.”

“I miss you too babe. I’ll come over later before the shitstorm hits my house,” David promises. There’s some muffled vague noises on the other end, and then David says, “sorry I have to go. My mom’s here to pick me up.”

David hangs up before Silva can say anything else, so he just shoves the phone back into his pants pocket and walks back to the cafeteria to finish up his lunch period. And as he eats and laughs with his friends, he can’t help but constantly look to his right, where David would be if he was here, and his chest kind of seizes at the thought of him not being there for the coming days.

He knows it’s stupid, it hasn’t even been a day since he last saw David, but he still fiercely misses David’s biting sarcasm, and his stupid sweet smiles. He can’t help but think that even after the next couple days, his boyfriend won’t be coming back to this school. How can he? He’s royalty now, and royalty don’t go to public high schools. They go to expensive, prep schools in England, where they can meet the right people to mingle with, and the right people to marry.

Suddenly, Silva feels like he can’t breathe, and he knows that Jesus is worried, from the glances the other boy keeps throwing at him, but he can’t help the fear that washes over him.

How could he be so stupid as to forget?

David becoming the heir changes everything. Heirs are expected to marry an upstanding woman and produce many of their own heirs to continue the line.

And suddenly, for the first time since they started dating, Silva starts to doubt.

\--------------------------------

 

The next few days pass in a blur for David. He visited Silva, as he promised, right after school ended, but Silva was strangely unresponsive. After only spending an hour (where he barely got a word from him), Silva kicked David out (subtly, but still, David could take a hint) to do homework. David would be more worried about it, but for now it would have to go in line behind learning how to be a fucking king.

The only hiccup in the preparations come on the Thursday, the second day of study. Pepe comes barging into his house when David is in the middle of getting grilled about the proper way to answer interview questions (“Without swearing, highness!”).

“Uh, what the hell is all this?” Pepe asks slowly as he comes to a complete stop at the sight of the five complete strangers occupying David’s living room.

“Thank god you’re here. I need a fucking break,” David throws the papers he had onto the table.

“Highness, this really isn’t the time - ”

“Give me thirty fucking minutes or I’ll break something. Or someone,” David says, gritting his teeth. The assistant who’s been helping him looks exasperated but nods. David takes Pepe’s elbow and drags him up to his room before closing his door and collapsing face first into his bed.

“David, what the hell is going on? You’ve skipped school for the third day straight! And I know you’re not the scholarly type, but fuck, you’ve never skipped that much before! And that guy! He called you, what, highness?” Pepe’s pacing around in his small room, the anxiety obvious in the tenseness of his shoulders.

David rolls around to look at his best friend. “I’m the fucking heir to the Genovian throne, surprise.”

Pepe just stares. “No you’re not. They already have an heir, you idiot.”

“Well how do you explain all that shit downstairs?” David shoots back. He knows he should be more patient with Pepe, but after hours and hours of so called royal training, his patience has been worn rather thin. So he takes a deep breath before continuing. “My mom had me with the Prince before she met my dad. So.”

Pepe slowly shuffles backwards until he hits David’s chair and sits down slowly. “Oh my god, you are royalty? Fuck I’m sorry, Genovia.”

“Hey!” David snaps. “Cool it with the insults, I could have you hanged.”

Pepe laughs. “Oh my god, you’re royalty. This is priceless. Prince David of Genovia.” And then he pitches his voice higher in a mocking tone. “Hey, fuck you, and fuck you too, minion. I told you I wanted my eggs sunny side up, not sunny side fucking everywhere!”

“Fuck you!”

That only serves to make Pepe laugh louder so David is forced to get up and shove him off his chair. Pepe’s breathless with laughter now and he manages to wheeze out, “Watching you try to be polite at those media events is going to be hilarious.”

“I’m going to be the best fucking king ever, just to prove you wrong,” David bites back. “You’re such an asshole. No sympathy for your best friend at all.”

“Oh no, I’m the new crown prince of a fucking country, please pity me. What am I going to do with my life now?” Pepe grins at him, but then it disappears a moment later. “Why didn’t you tell me earlier? I’ve been texting you nonstop for the past three days.”

David groans. “It’s been such a roller coaster, Pepe, you don’t even know. It slipped my mind I guess.”

“You told Silva?”

“Of course I told Silva, I went to his place the moment I found out - ”

“You totally freaked out and ran away to the comfort of your boyfriend’s arms, didn’t you.” Pepe sounded unimpressed.

David glares. “I didn’t freak out. I was just slightly surprised and needed some time to think.”

Pepe laughs. “I think it’s fine you freaked out in this instance. That’s some big fucking news.” He tilts his head towards the door. “What’s with all the suits? Are they your bodyguards?”

“Kind of,” David says and shrugs. “The guy I was talking to is the royal family’s head PR officer - he’s helping me catch up on the important parts of Genovian politics and big news, and trying to teach me how to respond correctly to the media. Someone’s coming over this weekend to write an article about me as the new royal heir, so.”

Pepe bursts out laughing again. “Oh my god, I can’t wait to read that article.”

They spend the next twenty minutes just horsing around. There’s nobody else who can make David laugh as hard as Pepe and right now, that’s exactly what he needs. By the time Pepe leaves with a wave, David’s feeling less murderous and he sits back down in front of the PR guy (he thinks his name is Fernando, but he can’t be sure), who continues where they left off: firing personal question after question at David in preparation for the big interview on Saturday.

David’s led a pretty normal life up until now, he has two loving parents, he goes to a decent high school, and he hangs out with his friends and plays football. So while Fernando keeps pressing him to word his answers with less snark and more boring, he seems pretty satisfied with the content of the answers.

Well, until he asks him about his relationships.

“Any past or current girlfriends?”

“I’m gay.”

Fernando’s head snaps up at that. “What?”

David gives him a weird look. “I’m gay. I have a boyfriend.”

Fernando groans. “And it was going so well…”

“What’s your fucking problem?” David scowls at him. His friends and family have been so accepting of him that he’s forgotten that not everybody’s like that yet. The surprise rejection hits him hard and his mood plummets again.

“I have no problem with it personally, but it won’t fit well with what we’re trying to portray,” Fernando says, ignoring the murderous looks David’s shooting him.

“Yeah, what’s wrong with being gay?”

Fernando sighs. “We’re trying to show you as a - ”

“- normal teenage boy who’s incredibly humbled and happy to learn of his new heritage,” David snaps. “Yes, I know. And I can’t be that?”

“You’re taking this way too personally,” Fernando replies calmly. “And no, you can’t. Not to the public.”

“Fuck that! I thought you said Genovia was one of the first countries to legalize gay marriage!”

“They are, but there’s a difference between civilians being gay and their prince being gay. It’s controversy enough that you’re an illegitimate child, it’ll just get worse - ”

“Well, I’m not changing my sexuality to fit your perfect story, so forget about it,” David snaps.

“I’m not suggesting that,” Fernando assures him. “I’m just saying we’ll keep that on the list of questions not to ask you, keep that out of the article for now. We’ll have to deal with it sooner or later, but right now, it’s much better to do that later.”

David’s still feeling aggrieved, but he acquiesces for now. If he could do anything to make the public backlash less, then he’ll do it. But the thought that he’ll have to hide a part of him, hide Silva, doesn’t sit well.

“Alright. But I’m telling you now that I’m not going to go and marry some random princess,” David says. “I’m not breaking up with Silva for this.”

“Of course,” Fernando says soothingly. “Although the two of you will have to be careful not to do anything too suspicious out in public for now. I’m sorry for this, but it’s necessary.”

David agrees easily enough, thinking about people getting all up in his love life makes him feel uncomfortable anyway. He’s just not sure how Silva will react to this. He wishes he could just get up and call Silva and tell him to come over, but with all the shit he has to memorize by Saturday, and with the weird way that Silva’s been acting, he’s not even sure that Silva will come.

The problem’s taken care of Friday when Silva appears in his doorway in the early morning. Both his parents have already left for work, and Fernando hasn’t come yet to start the next process for the interview (apparently he needs a new wardrobe - D-Squared t-shirts aren’t making the cut.)

Silva looks exhausted, his normally tan skin pale and dark circles line his eyes. He’s leaning slightly against the doorway, biting his lips and his hands are in his hair, trying to pat down the extra fluffiness that’s always present in the morning.

“You’re up early. There’s not even practice today,” David says and peers at his face. “You look worse than I do.”

“Thanks,” Silva says, distracted. “Can I come in? I have to talk with you.”

“Oh, yeah sure.” David steps aside to let him in and closes the door. “What’s wrong?”

Silva turns to face him, his face devoid of any expression, but his hands are shaking and David would bet his life that they’re sweaty too. “We should break up.”

David’s world stops for that second, he swears his heart ceases beating and he can feel the blood rush away from his face. “What? What do you mean - ”

“I’m sorry,” Silva continues on forcedly, his voice raising. “I just don’t think this will go anywhere anymore - ”

“ - break up, no, I don’t want to break up!” David grabs Silva’s sweaty and cold hands. “David, babe, why are you saying this now?”

Silva takes a deep breath and visibly calms himself down. “It’s just - it’s just… you becoming the heir changes everything, doesn’t it?”

“It didn’t change how I feel about you!” David pulls Silva closer and rests his forehead on his boyfriends’. “Please, David. In the middle of all this shit, the only thing I’m certain of is you. Don’t change that.”

“But I’m not certain anymore,” Silva whispers. “You’re not going to come back to school, even after the news dies down, you know. You’ll go off to Genovia and I’ll never see you again.”

David opens his mouth to protest, but Silva talks over him, shaking his head. “And what do you think your grandfather’s reaction to this relationship’s going to be? He’s not going to be happy about it. As king you have to produce more heirs, and I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but I’m not a girl!” His voice starts straining high again towards the end. If Silva hadn’t been talking about breaking up, David would laugh, but he can’t think of anything else right now.

“I’m not giving up on this,” David insists. “I already told Fernando that. He knows I’m gay, he knows I’m with you, he knows I’m never going to give the country a successor, and he’s okay with it.” Alright, so okay is not exactly the word he’d use, but Silva doesn’t have to know that. “He just told us we’ll have to lay low for now, okay? We’ll deal with it later.”

Silva just shakes his head again. “And what? Even if he’s okay with it, what about the distance? Don’t tell me they’re okay with you staying in the same school, in Spain, and not insist on going back to Genovia.”

David just shrugs. “I don’t know, but I’ll deal with that. I’ll tell them I’m not leaving here permanently, not for a while yet. I promise.”

“And you think they’ll let you?”

“Well if they don’t, I’ll throw a fit. Start cursing at reporters and make a bad name for the family, rebel as hard as I can,” David assures. “They won’t want that, so it’ll be okay.”

“It’s going to be hard,” Silva says after a moment and slumps down to put his head on David’s shoulder.

“Yeah well I’ll take it. If it’s the only way I get you then I’ll do whatever I have to,” David says. When Silva laughs and pinches him in his side, David just nudges him back. “I’m serious!”

“You’re such a sap,” Silva says teasingly. He pauses. “Thank you for not giving up.”

“Well one of us can’t,” David says. “I love you okay? Not even the promises of a throne will keep me away.”

\-----------------------

 

The day the article gets released, David is sitting in his living room with his parents, Fernando, and Silva. The four bodyguards hang outside, waiting for the media to rush in to see the new crown prince. Things were a little bit tense when Fernando first met Silva, but once David started threatening rebellion, he stopped questioning Silva’s intentions towards David (if anything, David’s the one who has the worse intentions, but he isn’t going to bring that up.)

Silva’s sitting next to him, holding his hand, to stop him from reaching over and picking up his phone. It’s been ringing constantly for the past few hours. To distract him from Fernando’s constant chatter about how people are reacting to the news (some good, some bad, as expected), Silva leans over and gives him a peck on the lips.

“Love you.”

David relaxes and smiles at him. “Love you too.”

It’s the first time in the last five days that he can look in his future and feel okay about it. He might not be completely accepted, he might be followed by paparazzi, he might have to watch what he says and writes about nowadays, but he’ll have Silva, he’ll have his parents, and he’ll have his friends.

He’ll be okay.

\------------ 

Also: a bonus, actual princess Villa!


End file.
